[January 2007, from Waitrose, Marlow]. I note that the beer is stronger than your regular ale, but comes in a smaller bottle, so I assume the extra 40p of my hard-earned cash I had to part with was for the value-added packaging! Having finally extricated my beer and made a quick visit to our cardboard recycling box, I was able to get at my beer and... woah, this is a weird one. The horrible sour smell from the bottle nearly put me off drinking it, but I persevered. The texture is smooth, but itís the taste that grabs your attention. Tastes sweet, then more sourness, then as you get into it I caught glimpses of malt, vanilla, unripe bananas (I think this accounts for the sourness), ripe bananas as well, whisky, lemon and caramel. Oooh, was that some sawdust as well?! And.... errrm... margarine?
I got the impression that someone is going for the complexity of a trappist beer, and simply hasnít had enough practise at at mellowing the flavours so they complement one another. Instead the different levels of taste fight for dominance in your mouth with the sour green banana coming back to give the others a good hiding at regular intervals. So we have enormous depth but no refinement - the layers of flavour simply donít sit easily with each other.
Some will find this beer interesting, others simply bizarre - Iím wavering between the two. Itíd probably be a good introduction for a newcomer to the noble art of beer tasting, and certainly provokes discussion. However, at present Iím not convinced that this beer is actually designed for drinking! I know for a fact Iíve never tasted a beer like this! Maybe it would mellow with cellaring (although I firmly believe that beers should be sold at the ideal drinking age, so Iím not having with any of this storage malarkey!). I also note that the brewers have only been in business since 2003, so Iíll be interested to see what their future beers are like - this one is intriguing and shows promise, but needs a little more time spent getting the recipe exactly right - if they keep persevering with this I think it could become a super beer. Perhaps it would also help to bottle condition it?
Errm... is that cough mixture coming through now? *hic* feeling a bit drunk... and very confused... what just happened to my mouth?

Well, I suppose this is a bit better than the dire 6.6% Oak Aged. Slightly less of the vanilla ice cream, thank goodness. Amber colour. Sweet caramel aroma with a little toast and marmalade. Sweet, sticky taste with some alcohol and no bitterness to speak of. Come to think of it, itís quite good.

A Mes rate: Bottle thanks to our TerryNice amber colour with a thin, creamy off white head. Fairly sickly aroma of toffee and whiskey. Oddly enough, a fairly sickly flavour of toffee and whiskey. Tastes very oxidised like it is just about to turn. Barrel notes are quite obvious but the whiskey imparted feels cheap and nasty. Finish is sugary sweet and close to unpleasant. Not a great beer full stop.

Bottle. Clear, copper pour, with an off-white head. Rich, malty nose, slightly peaty, with some fruityness as well. The flavor is sweet, with maltyness, some fruit notes, and not much bitterness. Neither in the initial flavor, nor in the finish. Full body. A nice, malty and peaty beer. I normally prefer more hoppy beer, but this one is nice, but maybe a bit on the sweet side. Repeatable indeed. (071005)

Sugary toffee nose has a strong hint of pencil shavings. Obviously some oxidation in there, whether voluntarily through the oak-aging or not. A bit undefined in the nose, whispering hard liquor tunes on top of its vanilla and almond skin nature. Alcohol does show up more than youíd expect toward the finish. In the end, it gives the feeling of a strong, sweet and chaotic ale which makes me wonder why I actually enjoyed it. Competent chaos I guess.

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